A psalm for Asaph.
How good is God to Israel, to them that are of a right heart!

(A psalm. Of Asaph.)
What bounty God shews, what divine bounty, to the upright, to the pure of heart!

Psalmus Asaph.
Quam bonus Israël Deus, his qui recto sunt corde!

But my feet were almost moved; my steps had wellnigh slipped.

Yet I was near losing my foothold, felt the ground sink under my steps,

Mei autem pene moti sunt pedes, pene effusi sunt gressus mei:

Because I had a zeal on occasion of the wicked, seeing the prosperity of sinners.

such heart-burning had I at seeing the good fortune of sinners that defy his law;

quia zelavi super iniquos, pacem peccatorum videns.

For there is no regard to their death, nor is there strength in their stripes.

for them, never a pang; healthy and sleek their bodies shew.

Quia non est respectus morti eorum, et firmamentum in plaga eorum.

They are not in the labour of men: neither shall they be scourged like other men.

Not for these to share man’s common lot of trouble; the plagues which afflict human kind still pass them by.

In labore hominum non sunt, et cum hominibus non flagellabuntur.

Therefore pride hath held them fast: they are covered with their iniquity and their wickedness.

No wonder if pride clings to them like a necklace, if they flaunt, like fine clothes, their wrong-doing.

Ideo tenuit eos superbia; operti sunt iniquitate et impietate sua.

Their iniquity hath come forth, as it were from fatness: they have passed into the affection of the heart.

From those pampered hearts what malice proceeds, what vile schemes are hatched!

Prodiit quasi ex adipe iniquitas eorum; transierunt in affectum cordis.

They have thought and spoken wickedness: they have spoken iniquity on high.

Ever jeering, ever talking maliciously, throned on high they preach injustice;

Cogitaverunt et locuti sunt nequitiam; iniquitatem in excelso locuti sunt.

They have set their mouth against heaven: and their tongue hath passed through the earth.

their clamour reaches heaven, and their false tales win currency on earth.

Posuerunt in cælum os suum, et lingua eorum transivit in terra.

Therefore will my people return here and full days shall be found in them.

Enviously the men of my own race look on, to see them draining life’s cup to the full;

Ideo convertetur populus meus hic, et dies pleni invenientur in eis.

And they said: How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?

Can God, they ask, be aware of this? Does the most High know of all that passes?

Et dixerunt: Quomodo scit Deus, et si est scientia in excelso?

Behold these are sinners; and yet abounding in the world they have obtained riches.

Look at these sinners, how they live at peace, how they rise to greatness!

Ecce ipsi peccatores, et abundantes in sæculo obtinuerunt divitias.

And I said: Then have I in vain justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent.

Why then, thought I, it is to no purpose that I have kept my heart true, and washed my hands clean in pureness of living;

Et dixi: Ergo sine causa justificavi cor meum, et lavi inter innocentes manus meas,

And I have been scourged all the day; and my chastisement hath been in the mornings.

still, all the while, I am plagued for it, and no morning comes but my scourging is renewed.

et fui flagellatus tota die, et castigatio mea in matutinis.

If I said: I will speak thus; behold I should condemn the generation of thy children.

Was I to share their thoughts? Nay, that were to put the whole company of thy children in the wrong.

Si dicebam: Narrabo sic; ecce nationem filiorum tuorum reprobavi.

I studied that I might know this thing, it is a labour in my sight:

I set myself to read the riddle, but it proved a hard search,

Existimabam ut cognoscerem hoc; labor est ante me:

Until I go into the sanctuary of God, and understand concerning their last ends.

until I betook myself to God’s sanctuary, and considered, there, what becomes of such men at last.

donec intrem in sanctuarium Dei, et intelligam in novissimis eorum.

But indeed for deceits thou hast put it to them: when they were lifted up thou hast cast them down.

The truth is, thou art making a slippery path for their feet, ready to plunge them in ruin;

Verumtamen propter dolos posuisti eis; dejecisti eos dum allevarentur.

How are they brought to desolation? they have suddenly ceased to be: they have perished by reason of their iniquity.

in a moment they are fallen, in a storm of terrors vanished and gone.

Quomodo facti sunt in desolationem? subito defecerunt: perierunt propter iniquitatem suam.

As the dream of them that awake, O Lord; so in thy city thou shalt bring their image to nothing.

And thou, Lord, dost rise up and brush aside all their imaginings, as a waking man his dream.

Velut somnium surgentium, Domine, in civitate tua imaginem ipsorum ad nihilum rediges.

For my heart hath been inflamed, and my reins have been changed:

What if my mind was full of bitterness, what if I was pierced to the heart?

Quia inflammatum est cor meum, et renes mei commutati sunt;

and I am brought to nothing, and I knew not.

I was all dumbness, I was all ignorance,

et ego ad nihilum redactus sum, et nescivi:

I am become as a beast before thee: and I am always with thee.

standing there like a brute beast in thy presence. Yet ever thou art at my side,

ut jumentum factus sum apud te, et ego semper tecum.

Thou hast held me by my right hand; and by thy will thou hast conducted me, and with thy glory thou hast received me.

ever holdest me by my right hand. Thine to guide me with thy counsel, thine to welcome me into glory at last.

Tenuisti manum dexteram meam, et in voluntate tua deduxisti me, et cum gloria suscepisti me.

For what have I in heaven? and besides thee what do I desire upon earth?

What else does heaven hold for me, but thyself? What charm for me has earth, here at thy side?

Quid enim mihi est in cælo? et a te quid volui super terram?

For thee my flesh and my heart hath fainted away: thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion for ever.

What though flesh of mine, heart of mine, should waste away? Still God will be my heart’s stronghold, eternally my inheritance.

Defecit caro mea et cor meum; Deus cordis mei, et pars mea, Deus in æternum.

For behold they that go far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that are disloyal to thee.

Lost those others may be, who desert thy cause, lost are all those who break their troth with thee;

Quia ecce qui elongant se a te peribunt; perdidisti omnes qui fornicantur abs te.

But it is good for me to adhere to my God, to put my hope in the Lord God: That I may declare all thy praises, in the gates of the daughter of Sion.

I know no other content but clinging to God, putting my trust in the Lord, my Master; within the gates of royal Sion I will be the herald of thy praise.

Mihi autem adhærere Deo bonum est; ponere in Domino Deo spem meam: ut annuntiem omnes prædicationes tuas in portis filiæ Sion.